2014 Yeti Super Bike 26” 6” travel.
Long story short; I miss my old 2008 Giant Reign and once a week I ride with my old mate Eugene who refuses to get a new bike and insists on riding his 26″ bikes. (I’ve know him since we were 3 and he got me into mountain biking in 1990). I figure there was an opportunity to build up a 26″ bike to level out the playing field a little when riding with him (IE: ride slower 😅).
I’ve done a lot of research over the past few months, watched a lot of YouTube vids, admittedly wasted some people’s time on FB Marketplace (BAD!), posted on reddit as well as here. I came really close to buying an awesome Banshee Spitfire and I had just given up on finding a Yeti SB66 as they never pop up on FB Marketplace or eBay, but yesterday an SB66 popped up on eBay Australia, sadly it was a size large.
Brian Cahal’s review of the SB6.
QuarterHP vid on the SB66.
I spent the entire day out West shooting cars at JDMyard and halfway through the day I got a PM from a Rotorburn Forum member Haylex who was wondering if I’d be interested in buying his SB66 frame in size medium which he’s had sitting in a box for the last 10 years. I think I went Interstellar. The right colour, the right size, the power of manifestation! I was spiritualized. We’ve agreed on a price (frame is interstate), and it turns out Haylex is also a car guy. He sent me through some images of his highly modified EG6 and I fucking remember it from back in the JDMST Forum days! What’s even more wild is that he has a JDMyard sticker on his car and I was at JDMyard at the time. Can’t help but feel this was all meant to be 😅
Haylex’s EG6.
Love Haylex’s backstory on the bike too. He bought it as a frame new in 2014 after watching Jared Graves nearly win the 2013 world champs in South Africa on one. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I vaguely remember a video where they did a bike check on Jared’s bike and it was running a 180mm fork for DH races?! I’ve found old threads on MTBR where owners at the time thought that 150mm was the more balanced option, and even someone at Yeti suggesting that a 160mm fork worked for him, but probably wouldn’t work best for most people. I’m pretty keen to get a 160mm fork on it though.
Anyways, super chuffed! I was having such a rad day shooting out at JDMyard and Autoroe yesterday and getting Haylex’s PM was the icing on the cake! Can’t understate how pumped I am to get the frame in the signature Yeti turquoise. That colour has always been the dream and I wouldn’t ever consider buying a Yeti that wasn’t a Turq no matter how good the deal. Frame is not in my hands yet (first photo is a shot Haylex just took last night) so first step is to get the frame, put it in the stand in my lounge room and like a blank canvas, live with it for a bit to let the ideas flow.
Interestingly I’ve been chatting to a fellow Weight Weenie forum member on Discord who says they’re quite unwanted in the UK and widely available on FB Marketplace. He sent me through a fair few listings.